Tom Brady, Malcolm Butler were the top performers from Sunday night
Pro Football Focus released their grades from Sunday night's game between the Patriots and Colts. As you would expect, Tom Brady was at the top of the list and was also joined by Malcolm Butler, Dominique Easley, Chandler Jones and Danny Amendola.
Here is the official list in order:
Top performers:
QB Tom Brady (+3.4)
CB Malcolm Butler (+3.4)
DT Dominique Easley (+3.4)
DE Chandler Jones (+3.0)
WR Danny Amendola (+2.1)
On Brady:
Only drops and batted passes threatened to derail another accomplished performance from Tom Brady (+3.4) as he led the Patriots to another victory. One of two drops by Julian Edelman (+0.6) led directly to a pick-six to put the Patriots down early in the second quarter but a scoring strike from Brady to Rob Gronkowski (+1.5) just after the half gave New England a lead they never surrendered.
On Butler:
This season has swayed from busy days to quiet days for Malcolm Butler (+3.4), but the Patriots’ corner stood up to his thorough examination, breaking up three passes after giving up a touchdown to Donte Moncrief (+1.2) on the Colts’ opening drive. Since being targeted 11 times by the Steelers in Week 1, Butler had only seen as many targets in the three games since, but last night was thrown at a career-high 13 times, surrendering seven catches for 83 yards to go with his three pass defenses and three stops.
On the Colts side, PFF has three offensive lineman as the team's top performers, which sort of makes sense considering they kept the Patriots' rushers at bay for much of the game.
Top performers:
LG Jack Mewhort (+3.3)
RG Hugh Thornton (+3.2)
RT Joe Reitz (+1.6)
HB Frank Gore (+1.3)
WR Donte Moncrief (+1.2)
I was surprised to see Andrew Luck left off this list, but here's their explanation of his performance:
This was a game of two halves for Andrew Luck (-1.8) and the Colts, as a strong first half gave way to a more familiar and erratic tune against the Patriots. While Luck didn’t throw any interceptions and kept pulling out big throws right until the end of the game, his accuracy and decision-making deteriorated in the second half, and he forced passes into coverage that might have been intercepted without the intervention of his receivers or stronger plays on the ball by New England defenders.
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